12 Curly Questions with Joshua Button and Robyn Wells

3. What is your greatest fear?
JB: Flying through turbulence
RW: Running out of black ink4. Describe your writing style in ten words.
A simple elegant style with a few surprises.

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
Clear, expressive and open to feedback

6. What book character would you be, and why?
JB: Superman, so I could shoot lasers out of my eyes
RW: Elsie Piddock (from ‘Elsie Piddock skips in her sleep’, by Eleanor Farjeon), so I could skip a high skip, a low skip and a strong skip.7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?
JB: I’d go to 1988 to Missouri to meet Peter Quill, the Guardian of the Galaxy.
RW: I’d go to the Skull Cave to have adventures with the Ghost Who Walks.

8. What would you say to your ten-year-old self?
JB: Never give up
RW: Don’t worry about what people think of you.

9. Who is your greatest influence?
JB: My mum
RW: My mum

10. What/who made you start writing?
We wrote Joshua and the Two Crabs to show the excitement of crabbing in the mangroves in Broome; we wrote Steve goes to Carnival to show how good life can be when you have friends.

11. What is your favourite word in Steve goes to Carnival?
JB: ‘drifting’ — the sound of musical notes coming out of the jazz club.
RW: ‘favela’ — the name for the shanty towns in Rio de Janeiro, originally called after a beautiful Brazilian flower.

12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
JB: Guardians of the Galaxy by Marvel Comics
RW: Phantom and the Sky Band by Lee Falk

Joshua Button is descended from the Walmajarri people of the East Kimberley in Western Australia and Robyn Wells has lived in the Kimberley region for many years. Joshua first worked with Robyn in a literacy program at primary school that resulted in the picture book Joshua and the Two Crabs (Magabala Books, 2008). Their latest collaboration is the picture book Steve Goes to Carnival, also published by Magabala Books.